Kei Nishikori slays Tim Smyczek in the second round – US Open 2012
Asia’s best tennis player at the moment, Kei Nishikori of Japan, did not face any difficulty in routing the world number 179 from USA, Tim Smyczek, in the second round of the last Grand Slam of the season, the US Open, on Thursday.
The Japanese had a firm control over the proceedings throughout, claiming it in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in just an hour and 46 minutes.
Nishikori did not allow his American opponent to settle down in the contest, breaking his serve in the opening game and then grabbing four more in a row to gain a 5-0 lead. The Japanese lost his own in the sixth and failed to complete
a bagel but he completed the job after a gap of one more game, sealing it 6-2.
Just like the opener, Nishikori struck in the first game of the second set and consolidated on it to go up 2-0. The Japanese contender nailed another break in the fifth and held his following serve to take a 5-1 lead. Smyczek avoided
some embarrassment by winning his second game and reducing the trail to 2-5 but he could not do anything more than that, dropping it 2-6.
Start of third set was not any different from the first two, as the American participant was unable to hold his opening serve and lost the next game too, going down 0-2. There was not a single break from either of the two players
in the rest of the set, so it went in Nishikori’s favour with a score line of 6-4.
The Japanese star hit a single ace and committed a couple of double faults in the match. The right-hander converted 32 of the 44 first and 18 of the 27 second deliveries into points.
Talking to the reporters after the match, Nishikori said, "I played well. From the beginning of the match, I wasn't feeling any pressure. I guess he was struggling with his serves and that made it easy for me on his second serves.
Everything worked well."
Nishikori’s chances of reaching the quarter-finals received a boost, as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom the Japanese was expected to meet in the fourth round went out of the event.
The Japanese added, "For sure I want to get to quarterfinals like Australian Open this year. That's the goal for me to get in the Grand Slams and to beat top-10, top-20 guys. It's a big goal for me."
Nishikori is drawn to face the 12th seed, Marin Cilic of Croatia, in the round of 32.
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